The battle was fought over a Snuffed Out tower in the system. The tower had been previously reinforced by Escalating Entropy and was exiting its invulnerability phase. Snuffed Out formed a 50 pilot Machariel battleship fleet in order to defend the tower and waited in range of the system for Escalating Entropy to show up. Escalating Entropy obliged, bringing a 20 pilot Machariel fleet of its own to the system. The Machariel fleet set up on the tower and once it exited its reinforcement mode opened fire.

Snuffed Out was anticipating Escalating Entropy to bring dreadnoughts. However, once the remaining shields were stripped from the tower by the Escalating Entropy Machariel fleet, Snuffed Out realized its enemy wasn’t going to field capitals and sprang into action. A force recon cruiser uncloaked near the Escalating Entropy fleet and lit a cynosural beacon, to allow the Snuffed Out fleet to bridge in. The Escalating Entropy fleet attempted to destroy the force recon cruiser but it was too late, the Snuffed Out Machariel bridged through an had landed on the grid.

The Snuffed Out, wasting no time and opened fire on the Escalating Entropy fleet managing to destroy several of the hostile Machariels in the opening barrage. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Escalating Entropy force beat a hasty retreat, warping out and docking up in a station in the system.

But this did not mark the end of hostilities. Having temporarily won the field, Snuffed Out remained near the tower as they had received reports of a Northern Coalition. 100 pilot Proteus strategic cruiser fleet that was on route to aid Escalating Entropy. Wishing to engage it, the Snuffed Out fleet patiently waited for its enemies to arrive. After a while, a cynosural beacon lit up on the grid and the Northern Coalition. Proteus fleet bridged into the system, hitching a ride on Escalating Entropy’s titan. This also saw the Escalating Entropy fleet return to the field, with 2 Apostle force auxiliaries jumping in alongside the Proteus fleet to beef up its logistics wing.

A second exchange began as the two fleets met head on clashing in close quarters as the fleets exchanged beam laser, railgun and autocannon fire. Yet as the two sides brawled it became apparent to Snuffed Out that they had the advantage. Wanting to ensure victory Snuffed Out, lit a cynosural beacon and brought in their own Apostle to augment its logistics wing. Within moments strategic cruisers started exploding as the autocannon fire tore into their hulls, burrowing easily through their thick armor.

As the fight raged on Snuffed Out reinforcements began to arrive. The 70 pilot Proteus fleet had been waiting in a wormhole a few jumps out for the moment to join the engagement.

The combined force of the two alliances was able to overwhelm the Northern Coalition. fleet. Strategic cruisers were shredded left and right as the two alliances focused fire. Northern Coalition. and Escalating Entropy was able to return fire, managing to destroy a couple of Machariels and even a few of the Guardian logistics cruisers. But as the battle wore on Northern Colation. and Escalating Entropy found its damage being soaked up by the Snuffed Out\Project.Mayhem. logistics wing. What’s more, Snuffed Out had brought in 2 more Apostles to the field which made their defense neigh impenetrable without the aid of capitals.

With losses mounting, Northern Coalition. and Escalating Entropy decided to bail and warped their fleets off the field. Snuffed Out and Project.Mayhem. attempted to hold down as many as they could, snagging several sub capitals as well as the two force auxiliaries which were stranded on the field, still in their triage cycles. The joint fleet dispatched all the stragglers before turning its attention to the Apostles, their overwhelming firepower making quick work of them.

With the last Apostle brought down, the field was once more in the hands of Snuffed Out and its allies. With Escalating Entropy and their allies not offering another engagement, Snuffed Out and Project.Mayhem. extracted their forces, having secured the tower and won the battle. Thus the skirmish in Loes came to a close.

All told, the battle lasted 18 minutes with Time Dilation not reported and the system holding an estimated 260 pilots at the height of the fighting.

Escalating Entropy and Northern Coalition. lost 30 ships in the fight, including 2 force auxiliaries, 7 battleships and 14 strategic cruisers for a total of 23.38 billion ISK damage.
Snuffed Out and Project.Mayhem. lost 5 ships in the battle, including 2 battleships and 1 strategic cruiser for a total of 3.9 billion ISK damage.

Salivan Harddin is a member of V0LTA, WE FORM V0LTA, and covers battles across New Eden

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